When Lisa Lattanza, MD, envisions the future, she sees a nationally prominent orthopaedics practice at Yale with destination programs, unique collaborations, and such advanced procedures as 3D cellular printing of bone and cartilage.
“This is a place that has all the elements and all the potential to be a Top 20 orthopaedics program nationally. I would like to help make that happen,” says Dr. Lattanza, who came to New Haven in September as chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine and chief of Orthopaedics at Yale New Haven Hospital. “There are so many incredibly bright people at Yale doing great work that the potential is really limitless.”
Dr. Lattanza came to Yale from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she served as vice chair for orthopaedic surgery and chief of the Division of Hand, Elbow and Upper Extremity Surgery. Dr. Lattanza specializes in treating pediatric and adult elbow problems, and she is a world-renowned leader in patient-specific 3D surgical planning and technology for deformity correction. She utilized that expertise when she led a team to perform the world’s first elbow-to-elbow transplant in 2013, transplanting a patient’s left elbow into his right arm to give him one functioning extremity after a devastating accident.
In her new role as chair of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale, Dr. Lattanza plans to increase the number of clinical and research faculty and trainees in the department, both in New Haven and in other parts of the state. In recent years, Yale Medicine orthopaedics has grown its presence in lower Fairfield County, and there are plans for a possible YM orthopaedics facility in Wallingford. “For small communities to be able to access Yale-quality doctors right where they live is a great benefit,” Dr. Lattanza says.
Dr. Lattanza also is enthusiastic about developing new and expanded programs and partnerships. For example, discussions are underway for a hand center that would bring together specialists in orthopaedics and plastic surgery, a collaboration that benefits patients and does not exist in many academic centers, Dr. Lattanza says. In addition, she would like to develop “destination” programs in pediatric orthopaedics, such as multidisciplinary brachial plexus clinics, which would treat children who are born with nerve damage in the shoulder and upper extremity. She also would like to expand the department’s trauma program, with the goal of sending Yale orthopaedic trauma surgeons to other sites where they may be needed, and developing a referral network for complex reconstructive cases here on this campus. Sports Medicine and other sections are slated for growth and expansion as well.
One of Dr. Lattanza’s most ambitious goals is to help make Yale a center for 3D surgical innovation. She would like to bring together those who are using 3D cellular printing in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and across the university. “There's so much more enthusiasm and productivity when you get people who are passionate about the same issues to work together, instead of all of us working in our silos,” Dr. Lattanza says. “My pie-in-the-sky goal is to have an actual 3D surgical center here.”
Dr. Lattanza plans to focus not only on the patient experience but also on the physician experience. As the number of faculty in the department grows, Dr. Lattanza would like to develop an internal physician wellness program to help create a culture where physicians can talk about issues they face and reach out for help when necessary. “One of my goals is to create a culture here that is envied in terms of being a practicing physician,” she says.
Dr. Lattanza also has a passion for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. In 2009, she co-founded a nonprofit organization called the Perry Initiative, whose mission is to expose women and underrepresented minorities to the fields of orthopaedic surgery and engineering. The two disciplines often work closely together, and women and minorities are significantly underrepresented in both. In fact, Dr. Lattanza is one of only three current female chairs of orthopaedics in the U.S.
The Perry Initiative is working to address the problem by running hands-on outreach programs across the country for female and minority students in high school, college, and medical school.